Armstrong cleared of doping

Armstrong: no evidence to prove the accusations against him. Photograph: AFP/Getty.

Independent investigators have cleared Lance Armstrong of doping during the 1999 Tour de France, 10 months after French sports newspaper L'Equipe claimed to have seen "indisputable" evidence of his guilt.

Dutch law firm Scholten, called in by the International Cycling Union (UCI) to investigate in October, accused the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and the French national anti-doping laboratory (LNDD) of misconduct in a 132-page report on Wednesday. The report, prepared by Emile Vrijman - a former director of the Netherlands national anti-doping agency - found Wada had "behaved in ways that are completely inconsistent with the rules and regulations of international anti-doping control testing."

L'Equipe reported last August it had access to laboratory documents and six of Armstrong's urine samples collected on the 1999 Tour, showed "indisputable" traces of the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO). American Armstrong, who first won the Tour that year and retired after his record seventh consecutive victory last July, has always denied taking banned substances.

In February the UCI revealed its chief medical officer Mario Zorzoli had provided the newspaper with the documents. Zorzoli said he must have provided all the forms but only so the journalist could write an article proving Armstrong never asked to use drugs after successfully overcoming testicular cancer. He was suspended for a month but reinstated in March.

Armstrong declared that the investigation's findings proved that Wada had broken the law. "The report confirms my innocence, but also finds that [Wada president] Mr [Dick] Pound along with the French lab and the French ministry have ignored the rules and broken the law," he said. "They have also refused to co-operate with the investigation in an effort to conceal the full scope of their wrongdoing.

"I have now retired, but for the sake of all athletes still competing who deserve a level playing field and a fair system of drug testing, the time has come to take action against these kinds of attacks before they destroy the credibility of Wada and, in turn, the international anti-doping system."

The UCI was unhappy the findings had been released before it had had a chance to study them. "The UCI strongly deplores the behaviour of Mr Vrijman, who expressed himself in a premature manner, contravening the agreements that all parties implicated would be informed before any public comment was made on contents of the report," the union said in a statement.

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